Active Anting in the Puerto Rican Tanager

Abstract

*[The tanager perched on a small limb adjacent to the main trunk of the tree, plucked rapidly at the moss, & thrust its bill, often with a small piece of moss in it, into either its rectrices or remiges. The tree trunk, the moss covering it, & the base of an attached bromeliad (Guzmania berteroniana) were covered with ants, identified as Iridomyrmex melleus Wheeler. These ants are very small (2-3 mm) & we could not see them in the bird's bill, but we inferred that the bird was anting from the stereotyped, somewhat frantic behavior.]